Thursday, October 2, 2008

On the way to Billund

In the C terminal at the Amsterdam Airport Schiphol, a series of one-word signs proclaim your duty free shopping options. There is the "Leather" store, next to the "Diamonds" store. I am uninterested until Kate mentions that there is a "Toys" store which will likely have LEGO bricks.

We purchase a trebuchet set while waiting for our flight to Billund. I have no intention of building the kit, I just wanted the minifigs- what I initally believe to be a viking (but have since discovered is a dwarf) and two trolls (with heads I will later snag to build zombies).

Our flight is announced and despite my hope that we would be boarding a plane full of happy children in a scene reminiscent of the pre-island gang from the Lord of the Flies, there is only a single kid about 10 years old amidst a collection of serious businessmen in jeans and oxford shirts.

Once in our seats, I'm grumpy from a lack of sleep and airplane food. But I look up and Kate has snapped together the drawf. "Poor little guy, he can't bend his legs," she laments. A few minutes later, I hear the sound of a dinosaur, "Rawr..." yells Kate as she walks a troll waving a black skull flag across her seat towards me.

We both laugh and I bury myself once again in "The Unofficial LEGO Builder's Guide." She finishes the trebuchet, launching the projectile into the empty space in the exit row in front of us. We are mostly well-behaved for the 55-minute flight.

It is only after we land that the gentleman sitting to my right finally speaks. He grabs his laptop bag from the overhead compartment, it is black with a small LEGO logo in the bottom left hand corner.

"Enjoy your stay here," he says with a big smile.

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